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Federal
Circuit Agrees to Send Klamath Water Issues to
Oregon
Supreme Court
Washington, (D.C.) – On March
11, 2008, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit agreed to send four issues to the Oregon
Supreme Court for resolution at in the pending appeal of Klamath
Irrigation District v. United States, No. 2007-5115. The lawsuit
involves the taking of water from the Klamath Reclamation Project
in 2001 in order to protect two species of endangered fish. In
2004, the trial judge held that the water users had no property
right in the Klamath Project, relying on a 1905
Oregon
statute that the court held
conveyed all of
Oregon
’s water rights to the
United States
. The Federal Circuit’s ruling
now means that the Oregon Supreme Court will have a chance to rule
on these issues and will determine for itself what the 1905
Oregon
statute means. (Click here
to download a copy of the Federal Circuit's letter.)
“We are really pleased with
that the Federal Circuit agreed with our argument that these
important issues of State law should be resolved by an Oregon
Court,” stated Nancie G. Marzulla, counsel for the Klamath water
districts and water users. “
Oregon
courts should be the final
arbiter of
Oregon
law, not a federal judge in
Washington
.”
Certification of issues pending
in federal court “allows a federal court faced with a novel
state-law question to put the question directly to the State’s
highest court, reducing the delay, cutting the cost, and
increasing the assurance of gaining an authoritative response.”
In this case, the trial judge had interpreted an
Oregon
statute based purely on what the
trial judge believed that the Oregon State Legislature intended to
accomplish in a 1905 statute. No
Oregon
court had ever interpreted this
statute in this context and there was no legislative history
supporting the trial judge’s ruling. On appeal, the water
districts and the water users argued that this issue and the
related water rights issues should be certified to the Oregon
Supreme Court for resolution.
The parties have been ordered
to submit a joint statement of facts pertinent to the four
certified questions by
April 9, 2008
. Thereafter, the issues will be
transmitted to the Oregon Supreme Court for review.
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